Just a Gigolo

Just a Gigolo (1932)

*** (out of 4)

The Fleischer Studio produced a number of these animated short films where the "bouncing ball" would have audience members singing together. The animated portion of the short takes place in a jazz club where various animals are trying to have some fun. Then Betty Boop comes on stage and introduces Irene Bordoni who sings the title track with the bouncing ball. This here was a rather interesting short as it's quite funny during the animated parts. As you'd expect, the animation was extremely good and there's a nice cut between the animation and the live action. As far as the song goes, it was a rather interesting version. I wouldn't say it was the best I've heard but Bordoni brought her own style and form to it.

This short is on a Betty Boop compilation tape, but it's really part of a series Fleischer did that were called Screen Songs. Singalongs were a very popular feature at the movies in the 1930s and somewhat into the 1940s. The words to a song would come up on the screen and a bouncing ball would move in time with the music and cue the audience. The animation is secondary here to the music, which is too bad, because what animation there is present here is quite good. Betty Boop barely registers here and the short could easily be made without her. If the singer were more memorable, the short would be better, but as it is, it's so-so at best. For Betty Boop completists.

Betty appears minimally in this short. The Fleischer business with the bouncing ball sing along is OK. Apparently, "Just a Gigolo" was a popular tune back in the day. There are scenes here where Betty is accosted by the skeletons of animals in a kind of haunted house as jazz music permeates the air. To be quite honest, this is a hodgepodge of stuff that really has no direction. Betty gets to show off her perkiness but is just kind of eye candy.

This short, Just a Gigolo, is one of Max Fleischer's Screen Songs series which usually had a live action film of a popular singer warbling a song whose title becomes the short's as well with a bouncing ball jumping over the printed words and some animation that may or not be related to the song. French chanteuse Irene Bordoni does the honors here and Betty Boop makes a brief appearance as a cigar/cigarette girl with her in her usual situation of keeping a man from getting "fresh" with her. It's amusing seeing her calling this particular person what he really is, which is "pig"! There's also a sequence near the end as the song nears the climax of a male cat kissing all the female felines before forcing himself on one that plays hard to get but manages to make swoon before...well, watch this short. This was fascinating when I first watched this on AMC and it remains so having just rediscovered this on YouTube.

This installment of the Fleischer Brothers Screen Song series stars the voice of Irène Bordoni. Like the other films in the series, you see the singing star herself in a live shot--and then the cartoon follows. However, in a surprising twist, after you see a lot of cartoon silliness, it's Bordoni herself who appears in the night club to sing her tune! Then, as she sings through the song again, the old bouncing ball (very popular with the Fleischers) appears and the audience is expected to sing along with her. I wonder if audiences actually did this back in the day... Following this, the cartoon appears again and once again the words to the song appear. Overall, this is a well-made film that features a brief glimpse of Betty Boop as the emcee. However, it's also incredibly old fashioned and dated--as is the tune. My guess is that this would be very tough going for folks today--especially as there aren't all that many laughs--especially after Bordoni begins her song.